Boxes are commonly used in transporting, moving, conveying, sorting and storing goods and materials, and are employed by a diversity of industries such as trucking, warehousing, manufacturing, office moving and household goods moving.
The box of the present invention is collapsible. As such, it can be quickly and easily collapsed for compact storage and, just as quickly and easily, set up for use.
A major benefit of the box of the present invention is that, when set up, both the top lid and front door of said box can be opened at the same time. Thereby, objects can be loaded into said box (or unloaded from it) without either lifting them over a front wall or sliding them under a top wall. Such configuration in which both the top lid and front door are simultaneously open is possible when said box is either standing alone or positioned at the top of a stack of other boxes.
When the box of the present invention has other boxes stacked above it, the front wall of said box can still be opened. Thus, another major benefit of the present invention is that frontal access to any box in a stack is possible. Thereby, objects can be loaded into, or unloaded from, a lower box within a stack without lifting the box or boxes above it.
Since both the top wall and front wall of the box of the present invention can be opened, said walls are referred to herein as a “top lid” and “front door,” respectively. The bottom wall of said box is referred to as the “floor.” Said box may be made of plastic, wood, metal or cardboard.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,796,342 to Sanders et. al. and 4,693,387 to Stonier disclose collapsible containers. However, the Sanders and Stonier containers only allow top access. Neither container allows front access, as does the box of the present invention. Nor do the Sanders and Stonier containers disclose either (i) a combination of both front and top access or (ii) any form of a front lid or door, as does the present invention. The benefits of the present invention over Sanders and Stonier are significant in that the present invention allows (i) frontal access to any box in a stack without removing the boxes above it and (ii) easy loading and unloading with lifting objects over a sidewall or sliding objects under a top lid. Furthermore, the structure of the present invention comprises a pair of vertical inner sidewalls (items 301 in FIGS. 4A and 4B) that provide additional strength for bearing a load; the Sanders and Stonier containers lack such inner sidewalls.